One season ends and it’s time to plan for the next year’s creative. In January, the seeds of the 2018 presidential holiday card were planted. My office wouldn’t typically have any involvement in such a project. It would have fallen to the main Comms office at IU. Because the content requested as the theme of the card was an initiative that my department was leading, the IT Comms team was engaged. In the initial email from the university’s Chief of Staff, it was suggested that I be brought on board as the designer.
The theme was the Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative (MDPI). The mission of MDPI was to digitize a large subset of the thousands of archival audio, video, and film objects in IU’s collections and make them available to scholars all over the world.
For more about IU’s MDP Initiative, visit mdpi.iu.edu.
After months of prep and prototype creation, the team and I presented my two design concepts to the president. The simpler and more cost-effective concept was ultimately chosen. The chosen design was a silent movie film reel. The accordion-folded card was printed on translucent vellum stock with die-cut sprockets lining the edges. The card included a translucent vellum sleeve which slipped into a translucent vellum envelope. The sleeve was necessary to create enough opacity for the addresses to show well on the envelope.
So when film degrades, the blue and yellow dyes fade first leaving the film looking a pinkish red. Additionally, the sprockets can split. These details were added to the film reel to create the feeling of age and damage. To keep the sentiment light and festive, decorative holiday elements were included on the request of the president.
Written by: Amanda Chambliss
Designed and project managed by: Maria Morris
Printed by: IU Document Services